Across Africa, food systems are undergoing rapid and far-reaching change. Supermarkets are expanding into urban centres, processed foods are becoming more widely available, and agribusinesses are scaling up production for export and formal markets. Behind this transformation lies a powerful but often invisible force: Development Finance Institutions (DFIs).
This report examines how DFIs—public banks backed by governments and multilateral institutions—are helping to finance and shape the African Green Revolution. It shows how DFIs are not simply funders, but active agents driving a model of agricultural development based on industrial inputs, large-scale production, private equity, and global value chains.
Since 2019, six leading DFIs—including the IFC, AfDB, DFC, Proparco, BII, and FMO—have invested over $3 billion directly into agribusinesses and food companies across the continent. These investments support firms involved in agrochemical supply, logistics, food processing, and—significantly—formal retail.
One of the clearest trends revealed in this report is the supermarketization of African food systems. DFIs are funding cold chains, transport infrastructure, and retail platforms that expand the reach of supermarkets while marginalizing informal markets. These investments reshape how food is distributed and consumed, shifting power away from smallholder producers and street vendors and toward large-scale suppliers and corporate retailers.
Another significant portion of DFI capital is channelled through financial intermediaries—private equity funds and commercial banks—making it harder to trace where public money ends up and to hold investors accountable for harm.
The report also explores the role of philanthropic actors like the Gates Foundation, which align closely with DFI strategies and co-fund programs that promote input-heavy, technology-driven agriculture. Even climate finance—via the Green Climate Fund—is increasingly used to legitimize industrial agriculture under the guise of “climate-smart” solutions.
In short, DFIs are helping to construct a food system that prioritizes growth, efficiency, and market expansion—but too often at the expense of equity, sustainability, and food sovereignty.
This report calls for greater transparency and public oversight of DFI investments, stronger accountability to affected communities, and a redirection of public funds toward agroecology and locally controlled food systems. Africa’s agricultural future must be shaped by the people who depend on it—not by distant financiers and development technocrats.
